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Sunday, September 6, 2015

#97: Game Invaders: Dark Souls vs. Watch_Dogs

As many of you
know, I have been working on a Let's
Play series with my friend, Sam Callahan. Together, we have been
trudging through Watch_Dogs.
One of the more heavily advertised features in Watch_Dogs was the
ability for players to invade the game of another in order to
sabotage them. Fans of the Dark Souls games might recognize this
feature, since it also uses player invasion as a game mechanic.
Having played both Watch_Dogs and Dark Souls, I realized that I was
extremely annoyed by the invasions in Watch_Dogs. On the other hand,
that same general idea worked for me in Dark Souls, adding to the
game. This is when I began to ponder why this might be the case.

One of the
fundamental reasons why player invasions irritated me in Watch_Dogs
was that they were almost divorced from the rest of the game. As a
player wanders about the city of Chicago, outside of a mission or
side-activity, another player may choose to enter their game at any
time. Until the outsider is either dealt with or succeeds in their
mission to hack the host player, the host is unable to continue the
main story or do any side-quests. Even if the host dies while being
invaded, the event continues uninterrupted and the invader is able to
continue with their objective. In other words, to someone who is
looking to complete the game's story and/or side missions, an
invasion is just a needless distraction, rather than a core part of
the game. They have to put their game on hold in order to deal with
this new problem. Sam and I encountered this ourselves a fewtimes
in our Let's Play. Though we eventually remember that we could turn
off player invasions, that further speaks to how separate they are
from everything else. With invasions turned off, the game is improved
because players can get to the rest of the content without wasting
time killing an invader.

This is in stark
contrast to Dark Souls, where the invasions are more nicely
integrated into the whole experience. Normally, players won't be in
danger of invasions. However, in order to invite other people to join
their game and help them take down many of the game's bosses, they
also have to spend a Humanity point and open themselves up to
invasions in exchange. Invasions aren't so much a dedicated feature
as much as they are a necessary drawback in order to balance out the
act of asking for help. Even if the player is offline, there are NPCs
in the world that can take the place of both co-op companions and
invaders. In other words, this feature is so core to the game's
fundamental design that From Software saw fit to include an NPC
equivalent for those who, for whatever reason, cannot or will not
play online. Opening oneself up to the aid of others will in turn
open up the possibility that others will attack.

The difference
between allowing oneself to be invaded in Dark Souls and the
incidental invasion in Watch_Dogs is a very important one. Whenever I
was invaded in Watch_Dogs, it was almost always at an inopportune
time. Often, I would be about to accept a story mission, when the
game informed me that someone had stepped into my play session,
locking me out of the mission. It was an irritation that I had no
interest in and gained nothing from. While an invasion in Dark Souls
can be inconvenient, players must make a deliberate choice to spend
Humanity and make them possible. This opting-in subtly prepares the
player for the potential threat, which means they aren't surprised if
and when it happens. In Watch_Dogs, player invasions are always
surprising because they can happen at anytime. As a result, they will
always mess up the player's plan and cause undue irritation.

Not only are the
invasions in Watch_Dogs separate from the other gameplay elements,
but they are also removed from the normal character progression. As
players complete missions in Watch_Dogs, they acquire skill points
which can be spent on skills in the various categories, like Hacking,
Driving, and Combat. There is also another category called
"Notoriety". Unlike the other skill trees, players can't
use skill points to advance it. Instead, they accumulate "Notoriety"
through strong performances in the various online multiplayer
activities, including the invasions. Out of the 6 available skills in
this tree, only two could be considered useful to players who don't
play with others. The other 4 skills only affect elements of the
online component, by raising the rewards or making it easier to
detect an invading player. To put it plainly, almost nothing the
player unlocks in the online mode affects them in the main story.

Dark Souls works
differently. In order to gain Humanity points, players can enter
another's game and help them defeat an area boss. Even if they fail
in the attempt, they can still keep the Souls that they earned while
in working with the host. Alternatively, the enter invade another
player's game, gaining Humanity and souls by killing the host. Since
they do not lose Souls in the attempt, they are incentivized to take
advantage of this ability to gain Humanity. In turn, this Humanity
can be spend to allow other players to join their game and hopefully
gain an advantage in fighting many of the game's bosses. Both the aid
of other players and the Souls obtained in these multiplayer events
have a direct, positive influence on one's progression in the game.

Again, observe the
difference between these two games. To the player who is only looking
to complete the main story of the game, the invasions in Watch_Dogs
are a waste of time. If they perform well, the rewards they provide
won't help them in their ultimate goal, designed only to be used in
online challenges. Dark Souls goes in a different direction. Even if
a player only wants to beat the game, there is still a strong
incentive to partake in the online invasions, or at least make
oneself open to them. The aid of cooperative partners can greatly
increase one's odds of successfully defeating a boss. Furthermore,
there is a chance to earn more Souls and Humanity, which are used to
further tip the odds in their favor. As someone who rarely
participates in a game's online component, I still found myself
making use of it in my journey through Lordran.

When Watch_Dogs was
in development, Ubisoft said that while players could disable the
option for others to invade their game, they considered leaving them
on to be the "best" way to play. Unfortunately, the facts
aren't in their favor. Without a way to prepare for them, or a strong
reason to keep them enabled in the first place, it makes more sense
for players to not even bother. As Dark Souls demonstrates, it didn't
have to be this way. As rudimentary as they are, if Ubisoft had been
a little smarter about the implementation, they could have been a
seamlessly integrated and enjoyable aspect of the final product.